Comments on: Scientists I Should Know

By: The Sanity Inspector

The Sanity Inspector — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 00:28:51 +0000

Thus a means has been found to determine the composition of the sun and fixed stars with the same accuracy as we determine sulfuric acid, chlorine, etc., with our chemical reagents.

That’s always struck me with a sense of wonder. In 1859, in a technological world of brass, wood, iron, and canvas, a world of cattle drives, steamships, daguerreotypes, and cotton gins –somebody discovered what the stars are made of. Just amazing…

By: Ginny

Ginny — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 06:41:32 +0000

Off topic: Robert Schwartz – one of my husband’s dearest friends taught him linguistics thirty-five years ago; he’s a Gypsy, but the number of academic Gypsies is few and far between. Do you speak Romani? It is not a tradition with much written history; is it easy to trace?

By: Robert Schwartz

Robert Schwartz — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 06:20:02 +0000

I forgot. The first research job my wife had as a psych grad student was working for Dr. Honeydew. She says his lab assistant was exactly like Beaker.

By: Robert Schwartz

Robert Schwartz — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 06:15:21 +0000

My genetic, intellectual, and professional ancestors were horse thieves, bunko artists, confidence men, gamblers, pawnbrokers, fences, and few lawyers (if there is any difference between lawyers and the previously listed trades). Not a German or Frenchman among them. Jews, Gypsies, Cossacks and second floor men — the scum of the earth. I have pretty good teeth for an old guy.

By: Jay Manifold

Jay Manifold — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 19:55:58 +0000

These are always lots of fun. Other examples:

http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~france/kf_acad.html

http://casa.colorado.edu/~danforth/acadgen.html (which in turn links to several others)

I recall seeing a family tree of planetary science at a Lunar & Planetary Science Conference one year, which I believe was specifically intended to trace the lineage of the geology dept at Brown, but seemed comprehensive. Can’t seem to find it at the moment — it may have been in the form of a poster or handout.

My perception is that academic genealogies are becoming more popular, possibly because they meet a deep human fascination about our ancestors, biological and otherwise. I note that they’re becoming steadily easier to build thanks to search capabilities, and could at some point become integrated into one huge diagram: consilience through time.

(There’s an amusing parallel here to the idea of apostolic succession. Hmmm, more ammo for the science-as-institution club I like to beat on bad ideas with. This may become a blog post over on Arcturus.)

Me? I’m an amateur astronomer, so while I am quite flattered by the question, my genealogy would have, shall we say, an altogether different variety of legitimacy. Guess I could trace it back to Galileo with enough effort, though. ;^)

By: Angie Schultz

Angie Schultz — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 16:46:51 +0000

…I will say that I only need to go back three scientific generations to find a German Ph.D…

My “grandfather” was a German. Unfortunately, I have no idea of his pedigree. I thought perhaps Google might provide it, but it turns out that he bears the same name as an actor (whom I’d never heard of), so most references are to that fellow. Refining the search didn’t help.

There was a Festschrift a while back; that probably has all the details, but I don’t have a copy. (Hmmm, turns out the publishers still have some copies left. Hmmm.)